USC-PKUHSC Dual-Degree OTD Monthly Seminars: Summer 2024 Semester Recap
July 26, 2024

The China Initiative team continued to host monthly seminars to support the third cohort of USC-PKUHSC dual-degree students, now in their final semester of the post-professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) program. Considering students’ specific interest areas and their full-time residency schedules, two of the seminars were delivered remotely over Zoom and the final seminar was an in-person gathering celebrating the culmination of a year of learning, growth, and community building.

Seminar 1 gathered dual-degree graduates from Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 joining online from China, who shared their experiences and insights from the job search process with the Cohort 3 students. Last year, Cohort 2 students greatly benefited from advice from Cohort 1 graduates and were eager to “give forward” and share their tips with the newer cohort. Students had questions about work-life balance, and differences in job functions across a clinician position, academic position, and post-doc position.

Seminar 2 featured Dr. James Lee, who presented on Public Policy and Advocacy in Occupational Therapy. This topic was requested by Cohort 2 students last year, due to unfamiliarity with the American healthcare context, and the content similarly benefited Cohort 3 students in comparing the differences in healthcare policy and structure between China and the US. Dr. Lee made the complex concepts easily digestible and actively interacted with Cohort 3 students.

The final seminar featured a potluck — a tradition for China Initiative gatherings at the end of each semester. Yujia Mo, the second PhD student selected as part of the China Initiative to become one of the inaugural occupational scientists in China, a former Cohort 2 student at PKUHSC, was also invited to join the celebration as part of the China Initiative community. Cohort 3 students shared highlights from their summer residency experiences and their prospective job positions upon return to China. The China Initiative team prepared graduation hat-shaped boxes with words of encouragement as memorabilia for these students. This seminar wraps up the three cohorts of USC-PKUHSC dual-degree students’ academic journeys. It is a bittersweet moment for the China Initiative, but the Team plans to continue supporting these graduates through community reunions either online or in person at various OT conferences.

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